


A Practical Guide to I Love Yous

by certaintendencies



Series: The Wooing Verse [2]
Category: Glee RPF, StarKid Productions RPF
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-16
Updated: 2013-05-16
Packaged: 2017-12-12 02:08:30
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,031
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/805910
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/certaintendencies/pseuds/certaintendencies
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Not like, in a The Notebook sort of way,” he clarifies immediately, watching both Joey’s eyes open in shock. “Just like, in a ‘you got up in the middle of the night to let my cat in so I didn’t have to and you’re really sweet and adorable when you’re sleepy’ kind of a way.”</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Practical Guide to I Love Yous

**Author's Note:**

> Gratuitous The Notebook references, I apologize.

Sated, relaxed, somewhat sweaty, and  _extremely_  sleepy, Chris is wrapped up in blankets and Joey and halfway into what promises to be a very interesting dream when he hears Brian meow and scratch at the door.

Whimpering, he scrunches his eyes closed even harder and rolls until his face is tucked into Joey’s neck, attempting to ignore the plaintive cries.

“Nope,” Joey says, a gravelly darkness to his tone that Chris has come to associate with sleep. “You know that never works.” He pats Chris’s shoulder and rolls him gently away, and Chris is about give in to the inevitable and untangle himself from the covers when he feels Joey slide out from underneath them.

Blinking into the darkness, Chris watches as Joey leaves the comfort of the bed and shuffles across the room to let the cat in. Something warm blooms in his chest at the sight of Joey, one fist rubbing sleepily at his eye and the other hand sweeping wide in a welcoming gesture that is half mocking and all fond. Brian trots daintily to the bed and jumps up, making his way up the mattress and curling up on the pillow right next to Chris’s head, purring as soon as he settles down.

Chris, however, is more interested in Joey, who takes a little longer than Brian does to make it to the bed. He slides back under the covers with sleep-clumsy movements, tugging the blanket to his waist and reaching one arm out for Chris without really looking.

Chris smiles at Joey’s raised eyebrow when Chris responds too well and too eagerly to Joey’s half-hearted tugs.

“What is it?” Joey asks, one suspicious eye blinking open, jaw barely moving with the words.

“I love you,” Chris tells him.

“Not like, in a _The_   _Notebook_  sort of way,” he clarifies immediately, watching both Joey’s eyes open in shock. “Just like, in a ‘you got up in the middle of the night to let my cat in so I didn’t have to and you’re really sweet and adorable when you’re sleepy’ kind of a way.”

“So not in like, an  _epic_  way,” Joey says after taking a moment to process the news. “More like in a lazy way,” he posits.

Chris nods happily. “Exactly.”

“Mmm.” Joey closes his eyes and wraps his arm a little tighter around Chris, yawning. “I’ll take it.”

*

In the morning Chris wakes to the sun shining through the left-open curtains, illuminating the fact that Brian has migrated north slightly and has nested in Chris’s hair, and Joey has migrated south slightly and is nestled in close to Chris’s chest, yawning against his sternum.

“Mmm, guess what,” Joey murmurs, smacking his lips and arching his back into the touch when Chris scratches gently across it.

“Hmm?”

“You love me.”

Grinning, Chris slides his fingers into Joey’s hair and tilts his head back for a kiss. “Yeah,” he breathes, tugging a little on the hair tangled around his fingers and watching Joey’s throat work when he gasps. “What of it?”

“I love you back.”

“Oh yeah?”

Nodding, Joey presses a kiss against Chris’s throat and then scrapes his teeth up to Chris’s ear. “I love you in a ‘you got up to put the cat out so we could have morning sex without him trying to nuzzle my balls again’ kind of way.”

Laughing, Chris swats at Joey’s ass and rolls away. “Such a romantic.” He looks up to find Brian already staring back, tail swishing and paws kneading into the pillow. “But I see your point.”

“Hurry up and put him out and I’ll let you do whatever you  _want_  to my point.”

Chris rolls his eyes and grabs the cat, cuddling Brian to his chest as he makes his way to the kitchen to pour him some food. “I love you in a ‘in spite of your awful euphemisms’ kind of way,” he says over his shoulder, hips swaying loose and happy as Joey’s laugh follows him out of the room.

When he gets back, shutting the door quietly behind him, Joey is lounging against the pillows, his arms behind his head. He smiles at Chris.

“What?”

Shrugging, Joey lowers his arms and pulls the blankets back, leaning forward for a kiss when Chris climbs back on the bed. “I love you in a ‘you have a really nice ass’ kind of way,” Joey whispers against his lips.

*

“You’re sure it’s not in an epic kind of way?” Joey asks. They’re tangled up in the covers again, breathing hard and petting at whatever skin they can reach without actually moving their arms. Brian mrowrs wistfully from the other side of the door.

Chris can’t think of anything to say, so instead he turns, trying to make out the look on Joey’s face.

“Remember that one time Darren locked us out and we kissed in the rain?”

Of course Chris remembers that. He woke up the next day with the sniffles. “Are you saying… you would write to me every day for a year?”

Joey rolls over, tucking one hand beneath his cheek and looking at Chris, his expression serious. “Does texting count?”

Thinking about it for a moment, Chris nods slowly.

Joey shrugs. “Then yes, but probably even if it didn’t.”

“So,” Chris says, fingers digging into the pillow beneath his head as he tries to keep calm. “Epic, then.”

Nodding, Joey swallows. “The Notebook.”

They stay there for a few moments, quiet and still, just breathing together, until Chris nudges Joey’s calf with his toes. “You’re thinking about Ryan Gosling, aren’t you?”

“ _No_ ,” Joey lies obviously, pushing himself off the bed. “And even if I was you don’t get to mind ‘cause I’m letting the cat in again.”

Chris throws a pillow after Joey and then flops back down against the bed, burying his grin in the sheets. He feels Brian land on the bed, the mattress dipping as he pads across it to curl up against the small of Chris’s back, and then the mattress dips the other way as Joey crawls up beside him and kisses gently at the sensitive skin behind his ear. “You’re way hotter than Ryan Gosling.”


End file.
